The SB Cruiser : Amberwolf's 2WD Heavy Cargo Trike & Dog Carrier

[amberwolf]

Second flat on the trike, on the way home tonight, this time from the valve stem being ripped off on teh right rear, wheel spinning inside the tire/tube due to slightly lower pressure from the colder weather (~50F at the time vs the 100F+ it was last inflated at).

IIRC the last time I had a valve stem tear off, it was also in much colder weather than when it had last been aired up (front wheel of CrazyBike2).

Guess I should learn my lesson now (finally) and remember to add pressure when the temperature drops.

FWIW, I don't think it wouldn't matter so much if it werent' for A) the weight on these things, and B) the motor acceleration and regen/EABS braking, which combine to try to drag the tires around the rim.



The problem actually started before I went to work, most likely, or on my way to work, because I discovered the issue when I was leaving work and found the right rear flat, with teh valve stem at a pretty steep angle vs the normal 90degrees to teh rim; no obvious damage or punctures, so figured it was probably the stem.

Still, I tried but couldn't air it up--compressor fought hard to try but air just never went into the tube at all. Couldn't hear air hiss over the compressor noise but I've seen this before, so I gave up trying and just rode it home flat, as it would take me 30-60 minutes to get the tube swapped out, and it'd be faster just to go home (and I was very tired; still am).


It was "lumpy" bumpy ride because tahere's two tires on there (one inside the other) plus teh non-inflated tube, which (because I was stupid enough to use the motor in that wheel instead of the other one) almsot immediately tore the rest of the stem off and probably wrinkled up inside the tire irregularly. At two points teh outer tire bead popped over the rim, and so it wouldn't damage (worse) that tire, I stopped and popped it back on.

Most of the ride was at about 10-12MPH, after haivng tried faster and been unable to take the thumping. :/

If you've ever skateboarded or skated down a sidewalk with slight differences in height between the segments, well, multiply that intensity by at least ten and that's about what it was like to ride home on this. It honestly felt like there was a huge deep flat spot on the rim, or actively caved in like a Pac-Man shape, or as if I had run over a log and it was stuck on the wheel. :lol:

It didn't damage the wheel itself, though, or anything else on the trike, AFAICT.


After getting home and feedign the dogs, I went back out to at least see the damage, and was able to swap out the tube with some difficulty (it's cold out there (to me) at <50F and dropping, makes my joints ache and hands hard to use),

But I'll tell you that I'm damned glad it was on the side with the clamping dropout because that meant it only took about 30 seconds to actually remove the wheel--the other hour+ was spent getting tires off (just along the outer bead, not taking them fully off), and pulling out the old tube and stuffing in a new one, then getting the valve stem thru the rim hole, perpendicular, tires back on, aired up, etc.

But at least it's operational, and ready for tomorrow's work commute.

Oh, and I also aired up the other tires to make sure it doesn't happen to them...the left tube's stem was already at a bit of an angle, ready to start the same kidn of failure. :/ (had to de-air the tire and bit by bit drag teh tire/tube back the other way around the rim, which is not easy at all).

 

[amberwolf]

Tires stayed aired up overnight, a good sign. Now to see if they survive the trip to work.

 

[amberwolf]

Nothing failed today, still all at same pressure: 58psi left, 55psi right, cuz it's really hard for me to get the compressor tube off the valve stem with the tiny space inside the rim to hub and spokes, fast enough to not let air out... Can't even hardly get the air pressure checker in there.

Someday I ought to look into finding a handful of those 90-degree elbow extenders for the valve stems. Between the various 20" hubmotors like these that are so hard to get to, and the larger diameter non-radial mis-laced OEM hubmotor wheels where they put the narrow spoke cross over the valve hole, those elbows would help in these situations.

 

[docnjoj]

Hey Amber! I have to use those 90 degree stems on my 20" DD motors. I got them at an RV dealership as they use them for double rear wheel fillers. 10 bucks for 2 if I remember correctly.
otherDoc

 

[amberwolf]

Thanks--so far the problem has been that when I am thinking about it and/or am near somewhere that might have them, I don't have the money, then when I have some spare money, I don't think about it. One of these days those will coincide. :lol:

Today, though, I could use them. On my way to work, when I was nearly there, I hit a bump or hole or debris I couldn't see (even though it's broad daylight) and that rear right tire went flat in a couple hundred yards. I haven't had a chance to examine it yet but a quick glance shows the valve stem still perpendicular unlike the last time, so it's *probably* not that--but it could be an actual puncture, and I don't have slime in the tube these days, and I know that I did not remember to put another tube in my toolkit (stupid ) so I'll have to actually patch the hole if there is one and it's patchable. That's assuming I have time to do the repair during lunch at work and don't just end up riding home on it and destroying the tube.

 

[amberwolf]

The valve stem was already torn off, just was stuck in the rim's hole....

The two valve-stem-less tubes:


I wound up having to use my 26" tube in the 20" wheel to get home without riding on the flat tire again. :/ Took me only about 25 minutes to do the actual changeout, managed it during lunch, but I had to pull out the inner tire to do it, so I wouldn't have to fiddle around so long with the layers to get the tube in there right, especially since I was going to have to fold a good part of the 26" tube over to fit in the 26" tire.

Survived the ride home fine, then it sat for the weekend until after sunset today when I finally got a little time to work on it. (more on that in todays' post in the blog/housefire updates thread in my signature).

So now pics of the "wrong" tube in the tire, after removing the tire to install the new 20" tube.

View attachment 13

I did this a few years ago, but more longterm, with the result that I wore thru the point where it ahs to fold. There was only 2.4 miles on this time, so there wwasn't time to wear it any, though it did leave a bit of glossy rubbing on it:



After losing my good tube and the spare to this valve-stem shear-off problem, I was out of good tubes. So I got two new thick CST tubes at Gordy's Bicycle Shop, along with new Kool Stop brake pads. At about $37 with tax, was way more money than I wanted to spend (had had plans for that), but I didn't have any more reliably useful 20" tubes, so not a lot of choice, if I want to keep riding the trike (or else take it off CB2's rear wheel, whcih I'd really rather not do).

Install went fine, though as usual had to fight to air it up (or rather, to keep the air in as I took the inflater off).




View attachment 7

View attachment 5






Another problem: the old Tektro pads are no longer brakign properly, even after cleaning them and the rim surfaces and readjusting/etc; they appear to be too hard to grab? Has been getting worse slowly over last few weeks, as temperature has dropped.

So rather than try to get any of various old junk pads to work, since braking is kinda critical , I bought some new ones, and went with Koolstop as they actually had some (the last ones I got, on CB2, were clones by SINZ but seem to work pretty well-way better than others I'd used).

I didnt get pics of teh new pads, but the package is this:


and the old pads are here:
View attachment 1




Ddint' really get anything else done on the trike with other household and dog stuff I had to do, and trying to catch up on sleep I didn't get during the week.

 

[amberwolf]

It's been getting kinda cold at night, down to 40F and lower now.

I've been waiting to charge it only when it's warmer towards midday, but now I'm going to have to start taking the trike inside (or build an easily removable pack mount, with a lock or something, so I can take the packs inside). Maybe I can charge at work once I arrive.

Also going to not charge it as fully, and will do the slow charge too, instead of the faster one.

Don't have to charge it often, given that I have over 30Ah of usable power on there even at these , and am using about 5-6Ah per day of work, so I have at least a week's worth of commutes in it before having to recharge.

No further tire/tube problems yet.



To park the trike inside, we'll ahve to move all teh stuff Raine has in the front room, out of that room, cuz there's nowhere else inside that I can get the trike to. Back room would be perfect, but there's no way to get it in there without cutting it several inches narrower, or cutting the back doorway inches wider, neither of which is going to happen. :/

So I have to get it into the front room thru the front door, and park i in there, plus have enough room to turn it / move it in and out. That kinda takes most of the room, cuz i hve to leave space for us to get past it in and out the front door as well as thru the rest of the house.

 

[agniusm]

I always browse through these threads and one question keeps coming up. Do those welds hold for you guys? They look rubish and with all that rust (sorry for being to forward). I think you could do a better job though. Did you had any accidents in regards welds not being strong enough?

 

[amberwolf]

I can't think of any *welds* that have failed.

On other projects (especially CrazyBike2) I've had a number of frame tubing failures at stress points, but not at the welds, usually not anywhere near them.

Rust: not a huge worry here--it doesn't get and stay wet for any time at all; it's usually VERY dry, even when it isn't hot. So what rust does form I don't generally worry about; I can't think of anything that has ever rusted thru before I ended up reusing it for something else anyway.

Looks...well, it's nice to have nice-looking things, but those tend to be coveted by others, and the uglier something is, the less likely they are to want it, and the more likely it is I get to keep it.



I could definitely do better...but:

--Often when a weld "starts to go wrong" it's on something I don't have a spare of, and simply grinding the weld away and starting over wouldn't be any better than just finishing it and welding over top of bad areas with higher current for better penetration, because the original material would already be gone and I'd have to fill in with weld anyway. :/

--Sometimes it's my lack of skill that causes me problems, and sometimes it's the unpredictable way this HF welder (and others I've had) fail to feed the wire smoothly, starting a stutter that messes stuff up before I can stop welding, or simply never smoothly welding along. I'm sure if I was skilled enough I could work around that, but I'm not.

--Generally, I'm only after functionality, and while the welds may be fugly, they work for their purposes, and that takes less time than redoing everything that doesn't look right. More time for other things that way.

 

[amberwolf]

Was already down to 41F when I got home from work last night, at only a little after 10pm, and dropped two more degrees by the time I was done feeding the dogs and making my own dinner.

So I decided to shuffle stuff around in the livingroom enough to be able to move the bike out of that room, and get the trike in and out of it instead (since it has both batteries on it right now--need to take one off as it's unlikely I'll need that much range in the near future, unless I go up to Winco or something).

Now I can at least not worry about being able to charge the battery because of it being too cold.

And it will get a little better performance on the way to work because it won't have been out in the cold all night.

 

[amberwolf]

I've been reminded of why I stopped parking it inside...it wasn't the space thing, it was how hard it is to get in and out of the doorway, without hitting the axle ends on the doorframe or edge of the door itself. To keep doing this I really need to do two things:

--swap the doorframe pieces around and put the hinges on the east wall side, so the door doesn't open up only partway, stopping at the west wall that's 90 degrees from the front wall, whcih basically blocks at least two inches of the doorway with the thickness of the door itself. Then the door can open up 180 degrees and be totally out of the way. Means that it would open up covering the light switches, but I can live with that to get in and out easier.

--cut the outer axle ends off past the dropouts, and weld on the torque plates to the axles, which would then bolt to the dropouts on the *inside* of the dropouts. Then nothing sticks out past the edge of the frame on either side, and I gain about two inches of clearance on the sides.

Between those two things I shoudl then have a much easier time getting in and out. Still nto as easy as parking in the backyard....


Optionally, I could just make a better battery mounting system, that allows me to lock them on there securely but in a way that's quick for me to remove if I need to (like when it's really cold or hot outside).


I have a feeling that would be a lot easier...cuz then I wouldn't need to worry about getting the trike in and out of the house at all.



A note about performance: Up until the last few days or so (even before I started taking it inot hte house), Wh/mile has been dropping from nearly 60 to below 50 Wh/mile. Tire pressures are the same, brakes are set the same (no rub), etc., so unless there was an issue with wheel (or motor) bearings somewhere that has now "gone away" I don't see anything that would change the performance that dramatically.

Weight of trike/etc is the same, as is aero, and weather conditions like wind and such are the same.


Though I would like to get around to testing performance with the CA on there now, without the kennel on the cargo deck (it's been on there constantly for months), and with the trailer (with and without the kennel on it, and with and without the kennel on the deck at the same time).


I suppose before I do that I ought to use the constant-current test to truly calibrate the shunt measurement.

 

[amberwolf]

Wh/mile has been consistent, with or without recharging first, between 46 and 49Wh/mile, with the regular load.


Does take a lot more, around 65Wh/mile, when hauling TIny, though, as I did today to take her to work with me, as she had a fever and still has her injured shoulder, so between the weakness and the inabilty to use all four legs, she can't easily get around to go pee/etc. on her own, and if she was too weak she could get stuck somewhere unable to get up.

At least if she's with me up there, she can stay in the trike when I am working, and I can use my breaks and lunch to take her for walkies (more like hobblies ATM). As she would probably have some trouble on the slick tile floor of the store, I took her in the trike out front to the area she can do her thing in, then got her out of the trike, and she hobbled around with me taking as much weight off her front as I could (since she's pretty excited about the other doggie smells, it's hard to keep up with her), while she did her business and then investigated the rest of the area, before going back in the trike to go back inside and re-park in teh breakroom, with ice-cube treats as often as I could get back there for.


Anyway, it worked out today; will probably have to do it tomorrow too.

 

[DAND214]

Isn't amazing, what we do for our loved (dogs) ones?

Dan

 

[amberwolf]

I suppose it might seem that way to some...but to me it's just part of life.

Side note that the "cabin light" I have inside the kennel part makes it really easy for people to see her in there, and gets a lot of comments of various kinds (all good so far) about her and/or that I'm carrying her around with me in it.


Tiny's been up and down in temperature; around 102.4-102.8F, at 102.6 almost an hour ago at last check. She's also got not exactly diarrhea but pretty loose yellow stinky stools, and had a little seizure during poopy walkies last night, which she recovered very quickly from (in only a couple minutes) as opposed to how she usually does.

We're still waiting on the vet for a time slot for an appointment, so I'm bringing her to work with me again today.

For now she's able to get around a little better today than yesterday, and is determined to be out in the backyard, though mostly laying in a partly-shady spot near her favorite poopy zone.

Shoulder is obviously still hurting, and she has snapped at air a couple times when it was jostled, and yelped, which means it must hurt a lot when that happens because she normally doesn't react to the average pain at all, just goes on doing whatever it was she was doing (most often playing hard with Yogi, occasionally getting whacked in the face with the stick he's running around with as she tries to catch up with him and grab it. I've been whacked in the shins and knees and head by that as he runs by, and it hurts quite a bit).

We'll see how it all plays out....

 

[amberwolf]

Tiny update here:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49550&p=1129714#p1129714

 

[amberwolf]

Tonight we all go camping...at my workplace.

Someone had an oopsie and drove thru the front of our store, and since we have to have people and security there all night, I get to be one of htem (I can use the extra hours/money), but to do it I have to bring the dogs.

View attachment 1

I'd have to bring Tiny anyway, but I can also bring Yogi since I do not have to leave him all penned up (if he behaves himself like he should), as there will be no customers there, since it'll be after we close and we'll leave before we open again in the morning. I can't normally bring Yogi when I am working because he doesnt' wanna stay in the kennel on the trailer (while Tiny actively wants to be in there and will get in on her own if it's door is open).

So in a couple hours we'll be getting ready and heading off to work. I'm sure I'll have work-stuff to actually do while I'm there (stocking/etc), but at least they will be able to be around me, and I can take them out for walkies when necessary (one at a time).


FWIW, I took a bit of time while prepping it to ponder what more I would need if I were to try even a short (few days) trip somewhere using hte trike and trailer and taking the dogs, and it's quite a lot more than one might think, since I was presuming I'd have no access to anything I'd need and owuld have to bring it all with me. Turns out to be enough to really need a whole extra trailer after Yogi's trailer, just to hold the stuff for the dogs.

Then I could pile up food/clothes/blankets/pillows/etc for myself on top of their stuff, and across the tops of the regular traielr and trike too.



Anyway, I've got the trike and trailer just about readied up, and we'll do TIny's meds and dinner for boht just before we go. I'll get pics of the trike/trailer/stuff posted probably tomorrow, as it's not completely ready yet and won't be till just before we leave, so I should be able to get the pics but probably not time to post them yet.

 

[DAND214]

So is this a bummer or a good thing for you? It sounds good the way you put it. Hope it all goes well.

So now they can put a drive thru in the store :lol:

Dan

 

[amberwolf]

Well, they'd boarded up the hole by the time I got there, and cleaned up a lot of (but not all) the newly broken glass from the removal of the bent/broken bits of door and wall and stuff.


The trike/trailer setup with the blankies and dog supplies and stuff in the coolers on top, as I was about to leave, with Yogi in the trailer and Tiny in the trike.


Fully charged before leaving, it took about 90Wh/mile for the trip up there, hard accelerations all the way up to the 20MPH cruising speed, using both motors all the time cuz it was taking about 1300W to maintain even 18MPH, and closer to 1500-1600W to maintain just under 20MPH, average of 17MPH. Had to keep as fast as I could cuz there was impatient traffic on the roads as this si the shopping season where places are often open later thatn usual, and I left home just after 9pm and got to work around 930pmish (after waiting a while in a couple spots for traffic controls).

After recharging at work, and not needing to hurry with no real traffic on the roads in my direction, around 730amish, I stayed down around 15-17MPH, less than 1000W to sustain, not as hard accelerations, and a few less complete stops and starts due to lower traffic, and kept down to around 70Wh/mile. Average speed shows up as 12MPH. Same load, etc., just slower speed and less accelerations, big difference in efficiency.


Nothing broke yet, either. Though I need to look at the headset; when braking the steering/etc judders and jiggles a teeny bit. Probably needs tightening.

So is this a bummer or a good thing for you? It sounds good the way you put it. Hope it all goes well.

Good thing in that
--can have both dogs with me, cuz there's never enough time with them
--can have more money, cuz there's never enough of that either

Not as good thing in that
--gotta be at work even more (but is when we're closed so can just get things done as they're needed)
--floor is tile so hard for Tiny to walk around on for long so she likes to stay in her kennel
--I had a few things planned to do last night (including sleep; only ended up with about 3 hours, if that, cuz now I have to go back to work for the normal regular shift).

It went pretty well, except that Pauly, the other employee's dog, is a nutcase late-stage puppy about 45lbs or so that can't stand to leave any other dog alone, and decided that Yogi would be the bestest toy to poke at and jump on...but Yogi (despite often acting exactly the same way towards Tiny) didnt' want anything to do with this, and wanted to do not-so-happy things to make Pauly go away.

So eventually I had to put a Baskerville basket muzzle on him (I keep one around for introducing new dogs to each other in cases I know there might be issues). He tolerated it ok, and didnt' try tearing it off, but he didn't appreciate it much. He still snarled and snapped at Pauly when Pauly got way too interactive, but that didn't deter Pauly in the least. :/ (and that dog doesn't listen very well, either...sometimes I think Yogi is bad about distractions, but he's a saint (haha) compared to Pauly!)

I didn't do one on Tiny cuz she doesnt' stay in a fight when she snaps at a dog she doesn't like, she just snaps to make them go away and then leaves it be (while Yogi was gonna be really serious about it, probably like Nana was, but he's much bigger and harder to stop). And Tiny preferred to be in her kennel anyway, when not on a potty walkies outside.

Yogi also just couldn't keep from piddling on the floor here and there, either, cuz of the other doggie smells. At least he didnt' do like others and do it on shelves (and their contents), so it was easy to mop up. Tiny accidentally did once as we were preparing to go out for walkies for that, but contained herself after that. Pauly, though....

 

[Papa]

Posting error - wrong thread - my bad.

 

[amberwolf]

I did a test for yesterday's commute, riding *to* work on the x5304, and back home on the 9C 2807 (both 20" wheels, similar 12FET controllers). The path is not exactly the same, but it is close enough, with enough of each direction of very very very slight slopes here and there to be about equal, for the nearly-2.5miles each way.

There were more stops on the way there due to stupid holidaze traffic, but the startups are done using both motors anyway, until nearly reaching cruising speed of almost 20MPH.

No noticeable breeze either way.

Only guaranteed difference is that the battery would be full on the way there, and down about 15% or so on the way back.

Test is with Tiny in the kennel, both batteries on the trike but only the EIG NMC 20Ah hooked up. (I forget why I unhooked the A123 pack, but there was a reason; hopefully I'll get to test it this weekend or remember).

All I really looked at was the Wh/mile, which was about 65 for the x5304, and about 52 for the 9C. That's a big difference, so I think something else may account for some of it. I'm going to redo the test today the other way around, 9C first then x5304.

 

[amberwolf]

Posting error - wrong thread - my bad.

Ah; I was about to write up a reply to it, but now the pics are gone.

 

[DAND214]

Have a Merry Christmas AW!

Dan

 

[amberwolf]

Thanks--we did!

 

[amberwolf]

The apparent efficiency difference between motors is pretty much nonexistent: After several more runs using various methods, I get a consistently lower Wh/mile on my commute home, for whatever reason, regardless of which motor is used or how it's used, and whether I use both motors for acceleration or not, and whether or not Tiny is with me or not.

I'm still not sure why it's so much lower on the way home, as the route is almost identical, and though I go on the west side of Metro Parkway for the home direction vs the east on the way to work, the slopes are the same, the wattage while riding is the same, AFAICS glancing down while avoiding traffic, potholes, etc. There are the same average number of complete stops and starts.

The only significant difference is one side street that actually *lengthens* the homeward route by a tiny bit, but compensates for it by being a few MPH slower (around 15-17 vs nearly 20), but compensates for *that* with three speedbumps I have to slow way down for and then reaccelerate from, and one more complete stop and start.

So...I'm not sure why the difference, unless it has to do with the voltage the batteries are at, which shouldnt' matter if the wattages I see on the screen are the same, right?

Well, I'll test that today by recharging at work to make sure it's the same voltage starting out both ways.

 

[DAND214]

I have noticed that it seems to take longer to get where ever you are going than it does coming home :lol:
It always seemed longer for me to get to a race than what it took to get home. Why is that? It was always the same mileage and time, just seemed faster.

Dan